tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-309404722015-02-03T00:48:57.843-05:00Ithaca BlogDavid Makarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04300041635253368213noreply@blogger.comBlogger1058125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-29525496508895616542014-09-09T23:09:00.002-04:002014-09-13T01:53:37.621-04:00Teachout Draws Out Progressive Heart And Muscle In NY<p>New York City did not come through for Teachout over Cuomo, but 20 or so upstate counties did. Tompkins County was her biggest win, with over 70% of the vote. But even less liberal neighbors like Cortland, Schuyler and Seneca counties went for the upstart progressive over the big-cash incumbent.</p><p>It is a strong statement against big money corrupting our government. It is also a major statement against fracking. It is an historical outcome and represents new forces in politics. It's not a de facto victory but it is a de jure one. It's a good day.</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-75334624695478886032014-09-04T18:22:00.001-04:002014-09-04T18:24:41.544-04:00Ithaca Notes: Crowds and Shortages - Ithaca Times : OpinionThe most recent edition of my bi-weekly column in the Ithaca Times. <a href="http://www.ithaca.com/opinion/ithaca-notes-crowds-and-shortages/article_7e7cc77c-343d-11e4-91de-0019bb2963f4.html#.VAjmJZI8S5g.blogger">Ithaca Notes: Crowds and Shortages - Ithaca Times : Opinion</a>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-11269720208741347882014-09-02T02:32:00.001-04:002014-09-02T22:39:04.204-04:00In My Book (Thank You, John Lennon)<p>I have written a book about the Brooklyn of old - about my childhood - a self-published, unconventional book.</p><p>It is not a very straightforward narrative and its chapters are almost like poems, or spoken pieces. Well, they are short, anyway.</p><p>I can't blame anyone but myself for the oddness except maybe John Lennon. He wrote a book in 1964 called "In His Own Write" which made me think of writing.</p><p> He wrote wonderfully, but strangely. He wrote very short items you couldn't really call stories. It was just writing.</p><p>It was the first book I ever bought. I loved the music of the Beatles, especially appreciating Lennon's part in it. I knew he was wordy, funny, tough, a little crazy, and all of that resonated with me. I didn't know about the book until a few years after it was written. I bought it right away. I was just a kid. (It's funny to me now to think of a ten-year old buying a book for himself.)</p><p>The book amazed me with its humor and style. I read it over and over, loving the word-play and rule-breaking.</p></p>What I couldn't know as a kid was Lennon's debt to Lewis Carroll. And, a bit, James Joyce. I realize it now.</p><p>And mine to him. Despite his celebrity, and occasional outlandishness, he was modest of aspect. He used to speak of his lack of education, which he regretted. He taught people, despite it.</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-88154307680429735952014-08-26T01:49:00.001-04:002014-08-27T23:13:41.081-04:00"How Old Would You Be, If You Didn't Know How Old You Was?" <p>My best friend from high school just sent me a last e-mail from work. Ever. We are 56 (each), and he is retiring. From a job with the government, where he has worked since his twenties.</p><p>Apparently, you can do that (retire), working for the government. A lot of my life I worked for myself, and retirement seems like a far-off thing, if not a complete fantasy.</p><p>Financially, to be sure, but also physically and mentally. I told my friend Chris, good for you, but ain't you too young to be laying down?</p><p>I think maybe, as people are living longer these days, the word "retirement" itself should in some cases, like his, be retired. Chris, I said, maybe it's more like "graduation" for you.</p><p>In my case, the word "retirement" will equal the word "funeral." But that's okay with me. I don't have anything more to graduate from. I want to work till I drop, like John Henry, Pete Seeger, or Satchel Paige.</p><p>Let's talk about Satchel Paige, who once said (and always showed) something great about age.</p><p>Satchel Paige was the greatest baseball pitcher of all time. He was a star in the professional Negro Leagues, from the 1920's into the 40's. He was kept from the major leagues until the color line was broken, in 1947. He was signed soon after, despite his advanced age. He was at least a decade older than most players. He was great yet. But the age difference was obvious, a guy in his mid- or late forties in a game where 35 was old. Despite entreaties, he would never discuss nor disclose his age.</p><p>The story goes that, one night in a bar, a reporter friend asked Paige to please, please do what he had never done: specify his age. Tell it. Can it be true, in a game where you're done well before 40, you're still in here, maybe 45? 46? 47? How old are you? Really?</p><p>Paige looked at the guy (goes the tale). He said he would answer as a friend. But he would answer the question with a question.</p><p>"How old would you be," said Satchel Paige, "if you didn't know how old you was?" That's how old Satchel Paige was. Me, too. You, too, I hope.</p> Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-30343675564244579382014-08-26T00:40:00.002-04:002014-08-26T14:27:58.923-04:00A Lot Of Our Stuff Is Now In The Ithaca Times, Bi-Weekly<p>Check it, beloved Ithaca Blog fans: our local weekly newspaper, the Ithaca Times, now prints our Ithaca Blog-type stuff twice a month, a couple of items at a time. So we are writing a lot less here now.</p><p> Please give a look at the paper for it. If you are out of town, the paper has a wonderfully nice website name, www.ithaca.com. Unfortunately, right now, the format of the online edition is not as tight as the name. Our stuff, particularly, is not easy to find. "I type in your name and get nothing," we are told often, and it is true. You have to hit the menu for "Opinion" and then for "Columnists" to find us.</p><p>We're grateful if you look us up. We're glad that you read us, and we hope we please you as much as you do us.</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-27975010723526575692014-08-15T09:41:00.001-04:002014-08-15T09:45:18.783-04:00B-Mets Make the Post-season<p>Here's our column from this week's Ithaca Times, about the Binghamton Mets. The B-Mets qualify for post-season play this year for the Eastern League championship.</p><a href="http://www.ithaca.com/opinion/take-me-out-to-the-b-mets/article_6fb93ae8-2305-11e4-84b2-001a4bcf887a.html#.U-4N52Kb1Dg.blogger">Take Me Out to the B-Mets - Ithaca Times : Opinion</a>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-38820705335371505092014-08-13T00:20:00.002-04:002014-08-13T00:24:49.789-04:00Message To A Friend Who Once Worked With Robin Williams<p><i>This is a message I sent last night to my friend Lori Balton, a macher in the movies, who got a big break early, in 1988 or so, scouting locations on the east coast for a pretty big Hollywood picture called Dead Poets Society</i>.</p><p>Lori, I remember the DPS wrap party, in Wilmington DE, which you so kindly invited me to, when I was living in near-by Maryland, and you & I were not too long out of Cornell, you starting your career in the movies. It was a great, fun night. I remember you telling me, "These kids will be stars some day," and how great this one star, Robin Williams, was to work with, generous and fun, a mensch and pro. You had the idea the film might be a hit.</p><p>Tonight must be very sad for you. Of course, it is sad for the whole world. I was working tonight when the word spread. People cried. It is, at least, a reminder - or a lesson - about mental illness. That is the cause of his death. Mental illness is not a choice, any more than physical illness. Our misunderstanding of it actually makes it the more painful of the two. - Rest in peace, funnyman, great artist, giver, beautiful guy, Robin Williams.</p> Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-29422073652374911082014-07-22T00:17:00.000-04:002014-07-23T22:47:23.251-04:00Consumer Tips From An Outsider<p>I am aptly suited to give consumer advice because I am a real good non-consumer. Like, you don't want diet tips from a big heavy guy, do you?</p><p>Here's my credentials. I've never been in Wal-Mart in my life. Not to get off track with politics, here, but let's say that Wal-Mart is not a good civic nor global neighbor. Their meager payroll is supplemented by government infusions to the workers they underpay. That's where their corporate billions come from. That, and the slave labor in China they foster. So I don't visit them.</p><p>Anyway. I want to talk on a lesser scale here. I simply don't shop much. How much does a guy in his fifties who lives alone need? I already got, as the blues song says, everything I need, almost. Tables, chairs, lighting, bedding, shelving, window treatments, an ottoman. So I shop for food, and the occasional wardrobe update (to stay in the game, so to speak), and that's about it. Beyond Wal-Mart, I am hardly ever in a place like Target, either.</p><p> I mean, for consumer needs, you have to replace your shower curtain, every nine years or so, but you can do that at Wegman's. (Strictly speaking, what does a guy who lives alone, and rents, actually need with shower curtains? What do I care if the floor gets wet ? There's no one coming up behind me here to ask who did this. After my shower, the bathroom is closed for the day. The floor will be dry by the time I'm home from work. And, as I say, I rent, so what do I care about floor maintenance?)</p><p>(I do, however, care about landlord relationship, so let me point out to mine, hey, M. & C., I'm a JOKER! I have, and use, a rain-room curtain!)</p><p>(Hey, readers, too: just kidding. A guy needs fresh shower curtains and bath towels at all times: for that game, if nothing else.)</p><p>As a non-consumer, I never look at those big flyers that come in the mail and with the weekend Journal. They look junky and I need no junk. But this weekend I succumbed, because my microwave oven died on me, and I thought, if enticed, I would replace it.</p><p>So: here is where my experience comes in. I flipped through a Target insert, and wow, saw a microwave advertised for $39. I forget what brand, but I recognized it. And it was marked down $20.95. Beautiful.</p><p>So I figure I am going to Target. No big deal, I go to Planet Fitness up there in mall-land, I'll make a quick side-trip. Let me see if there's anything else in this flyer I can use.</p><p>There is. Target advertises a mirror that hangs over a door for $4.95. The only mirror I have, outside the bathroom, sits on an antique (i.e., old) dresser I have, and makes me look worse than I do, I think. So, a new one, for $4.95? To help me show up my old one? Great.</p>I go to Target tonight after the gym. There is a shelf in the housewares department for microwave ovens. There are a lot of them. But not the big-sale one. Its shelf-talker is there. But it is out of stock. There are, however, a lot of other m.o.'s, for a lot more money.</p><p>Forget that, of course. I go on to the mirror section. The one I saw in the ad is in stock. However, it does not include apparatus to hang it over a door. It was advertised as a mirror that hangs over a door. And, apparently, it is, if you have things to make it do that. What they are actually selling is a mirror that stands on the floor. But I guess this is not a strong selling point.</p><p>"Caveat emptor" is probably the oldest consumer tip there is. It remains pertinent. I would add, don't bother looking at newspaper flyers. They will rob you of time, at very least.</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-32089285336678079582014-07-14T09:30:00.003-04:002014-07-14T09:57:05.572-04:00Saving Grace For Rold Gold (A Bit More About Pretzels)<p>A few weeks ago, we wrote about 300 words here on Paul Newman brand pretzels. This is probably too few, but go back and judge for yourself.</p><p>There is probably less to say about Rold Gold pretzels, although if anyone can push it, it is us.</p><p>I got a bag of Rold Gold pretzels at Wegman's. They probably have Paul Newman brand, but segregate it over in the natural foods section, which somehow doesn't seem kosher to me, plus it can be a little wearying in Wegman's after a while (we love Wegman's, but sometimes in the way we love the gym, that we are happiest leaving).</p><p>Rold Gold makes a fine pretzel, but talk about wearying, check their on-bag salesmanship. They try too hard.</p><p>Their pretzels are "utterly chompable." They take you "straight from the big crunch to great taste," which I hadn't really noticed, and still don't. I would prefer not to have to. They "are made to satisfy even the most discriminating pretzel lover," which actually puts me off, if Rold Gold thinks I go around thinking of myself as a discriminating pretzel lover as part of my psychic identity. I don't.</p><p>A big knock against Rold Gold, in our booklet, is that they are part of Frito-Lay, Inc. We didn't know that. We always think of pretzel companies as small, independent enterprises from places a lot of Germans used to live. Somehow it makes us feel fat eating anything by Frito-Lay, even though you can eat an entire bag of pretzels and get only 1,300 calories. Something about that red-and-yellow Frito-Lay logo on the bag makes you feel you eat from convenience stores.</p><p>But here is a saving grace for Rold Gold. We have been aware of their product a long time. But it never occurred to us before: there is no such word as "rold."</p><p> We like it when someone can toss a linguistic curve like that past us. Of course, maybe they simply can't spell. But they've been around since 1917. You think someone would have noticed by now.</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-11969524047570543792014-07-13T21:11:00.003-04:002014-07-17T03:39:32.351-04:00A Thought Too Short For The Ithaca Times<p>As noted here in our last post, the Ithaca Times has started publishing our Ithaca Blog-type writings in a column. Some of our thoughts are too short for them; or maybe even for here. Such as this one we had recently: there are two industries we're glad we never invested in: address books, and ashtrays.</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-42155867794262420392014-07-13T20:54:00.001-04:002014-07-14T08:48:04.933-04:00Too-Early Birds/GrassRoots Fest News<p>Along with the occasional feature and review, we have started writing a column for The Ithaca Times. Called, for now, "Ithaca Notes," it will appear every few weeks. This first installment appeared this week:</p> r<a href="http://www.ithaca.com/opinion/ithaca-notes-early-bird-grass-roots/article_033a1b24-0796-11e4-8097-001a4bcf887a.html#.U8MqE7MD9a8.blogger">Ithaca Notes: Early Bird, Grass Roots - Ithaca Times : Opinion</a>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-24617366777714717332014-06-17T07:08:00.001-04:002014-06-17T07:16:32.429-04:00Book Reading at Buffalo Street Books, Tuesday 24 June, 6 PM<p>I will be acting as a sort of fancy check-it-out guy at Buffalo Street Books, one week from tonight</p> <a href="http://www.ithaca.com/arts_and_entertainment/boy-of-summer-ithaca-s-burke-reflects-on-brooklyn-upbringing/article_d45c948e-b9df-11e3-9f85-001a4bcf887a.html#.U6AhXABzdmc.blogger">Boy of Summer: Ithaca's Burke Reflects on Brooklyn Upbringing - Ithaca Times : Arts &amp; Entertainment</a>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-51322922850253354862014-06-17T06:28:00.000-04:002014-06-17T22:18:39.464-04:00Why Hillary Won't Win: Iraq<p>In 2002, as senator from New York, Hillary Clinton voted to authorize George Bush's war on Iraq. So did New York's other senator, Charles Schumer. I wrote to both of them at the time and said, you represent millions of New Yorkers who know this war is phony and illegal. You know it is, too. But you're not willing to say it. It might complicate your career. You voted for it as the politically expedient thing to do.</p><p>But (I wrote), maybe it's not. I know that personally I will never vote for either of you for anything again, no matter the circumstances. I'll write somebody in, as a protest vote. I hope and trust there are millions of people like me, and you have earned the ends of your political careers with this acquiescence to lies and slaughter.</p><p>In 2008, Clinton lost her campaign for the presidency to Barack Obama, who had opposed the war on Iraq. With the new upheaval in Iraq, the war remains an issue, as it should. And Clinton's complicity haunts her, as it should. It should haunt more than just her campaign.</p><p>As it did in 2008, it opens the door for less conservative challengers. Elizabeth Warren says she doesn't want to run, but we hope she's thinking about it now.</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-65255464008854663142014-06-13T00:26:00.001-04:002014-06-15T01:42:06.329-04:00Yes, Pittsburgh<p>Ithaca is paradise in the summer, but if you want someplace to go on a quick summer vacation, with some urban excitement? There is always NYC, a place we dearly love, and will visit at hat's drop. But if you want something a little less known, a bit farther afield, and to make a discovery, go in the opposite direction, west instead of east, and visit Pittsburgh.</p><p>Yes, Pittsburgh. We visited Pittsburgh for the first time 6 years ago. We were going to a conference, and staying with friends. We had good, particular reasons to go: the conference (paying us), and those friends. But we found that Pittsburgh has attributes, as a city, of its own.</p><p>Its image is of a smokey, smolten steel town. Of course, this is no longer true. The city, to its enormous credit, did not die with the death of its first industry. Instead it recreated itself, as a center of education, and a home to health care and insurance businesses. It stayed economically strong.</p><p>Emerging from the transition was the physical beauty of the place. It got clean, and its three rivers, in their mighty confluence ("confluence" is a commonly-heard word in Pittsburgh) became prominent in their loveliness, recreational capacities, and interesting, cool-to-think-about, geographic and historical importance.</p><p>Also physically lovely about Pittsburgh are its hills. The hills are above those rivers. (That's where the water runs from.) Pittsburgh's hills reminded us of San Francisco, a place we have visited many times, and love. But San Fran's hills don't run with water, like Pittsburgh's. And they don't have trams running up them for thrilling views, as Pittsburgh's do.</p><p>Pittsburgh has also become a culinary center. There are great food people working there, running the range from farmer's markets and inventive food trucks, to fancy, splashy joints. When we were there, we talked to our restaurant host/chef, after a fantastic meal (at an expensive place, let's be clear - we like to spend money on such evenings pretty nicely, once in a while - though we can tell you, it was maybe only 60% NYC expensive), who told us he chose Pittsburgh over Brooklyn, as a place to ply his trade in comfort and calm, at a reasonable rent, to appreciative clientele. We can tell you he was doing it to great results.</p><p>The other thing, for summer, is that Pittsburgh has a major league baseball team. They play in a park that is regarded as perhaps the loveliest in the nation. (San Francisco's is its rival - there's that comparison, again - but tickets in Pittsburgh are about half the price of S.F.'s.)</p><p>As restaurateurs do, at least one bookstore has chosen to be in Pittsburgh rather than New York. It's called Amazing Books. It is a great shop and is run by a guy from the Bronx who married a woman from Pittsburgh and settled there. He has invited us to do a reading of our book, "Brooklyn 3, New York," at his place, and we are sure doing it. It is scheduled for Sunday 29 June, at 11 a.m. The New York Mets are in town that day to play the Bucs. Our plan is to do our reading first and then go as a group to the game. If any of this interests you to the point of involement? Let us know, and we'll see what's doing.Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-21162524244918300632014-06-11T00:49:00.000-04:002014-06-12T11:30:48.476-04:00Or A Marriage Counselor<p>I am a not-very-good guitar player, and I have a not-very-good guitar. We suit one another that way. The guitar had a previous owner, but a long time ago: 33 years. I bought it from the first owner in 1981. I forget what I paid for it. Maybe $100 bucks (1981 money, about a month's rent). It has sort of a bastard pedigree. Technically by Guild, a reputable maker, it is a "Madeira" model, which I think is sort of an ersatz knock-off. It doesn't matter to me. It's my guitar. It knows all the songs I know. I have never had another.</p><p>I take care of it okay. Periodic cleanings, adjustments. I recently took it to a friend who does repairs and such. He looks at it and scowls. At it, then me. It's okay, we're friends, he can scowl at me. He says to me, though:</p><p> - You ever think about getting a new guitar?</p><p>Now it's my turn. I scowl at him. I'm actually mad, though. At least a little. "It's a good thing you're not a veterinarian," I say.Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-7640603511447593142014-06-02T23:37:00.000-04:002014-06-03T05:56:55.152-04:00Peter De Mott Trot, For Great Legs, and Great Work For Peace<p>Once and only once in my life did I ever dress in drag, or anything approximating it. It was for a costume party that I didn't want to go to because I don't like costumes anyway, at least not on me, plus the theme to this party was "The Brady Bunch," a show I never watched in my life, because I was never a prisoner of war, and only torture would make me do such a thing.</p><p>But, I was letting down a friend by not attending, so I went, and dressed up, not as some TV character, but as my friend Teresa Grady. My idea was to say I thought the theme was "The Grady Bunch."</p><p>I wore a knit dress and tights, as Teresa did in those days, plus a crucifix. I was a hit, for the most part, doing this thing my own way, as I love to do, except that after about an hour one of the women at the party came up to me, on behalf of herself and the other women, she said.</p><p>"We want you to go put on pants," she said. "You have nicer legs than any of us and you're showing us up."</p><p>I think of this because I am thinking of my late, great friend, Peter De Mott, Teresa Grady's brother-in-law, husband of Teresa's sister Ellen. If you want to see the greatest pair of legs on a man you ever saw in your life, look at the photo of Peter on the publicity for the De Mott Peace Trot, the annual 5K run/walk held every Father's Day in Peter's honor. The 5th annual event takes place on Sunday 15 June, at the Cornell Plantations.</p>Peter had the body of the ex-Marine he was, maintained by exercise that Peter took as he did everything in life, scrupulously but with joy. "A day without sweat is a day to regret," he said, and is the slogan of the Trot.</p><p>You don't have to run. The course is a beautiful place for a stroll, and the gathering is fun and heart-warming, one of the best community events of the year.</p><p>Proceeds from registrations and other donations go towards Peter's work for peace, which is carried on most directly by Ellen, their four daughters, others of the Grady Bunch, and the Catholic Worker group. Please contribute. More information at peterdemottpeacetrot.org.Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-9753574302282516272014-05-27T23:16:00.003-04:002014-05-28T00:37:23.373-04:00Taste of the Nation, June 17: A Nice Party For You, Steady Food For Kids<p>Chances are if someone asked you to find twenty five cents a day for the next year to give to a proven great program to help feed kids, you would do it.</p><p>But what if they threw in the following: you can donate it at a party where scores of great local restaurants, vintners, and breweries will have unbelievably great food and drink for you, to thank you? Plus, they'll throw in a band at the end, to dance the night away?</p><p>That's the deal at the annual Taste of the Nation event, on Tuesday 17 June. The event is nation-wide, with hundreds of cities raising funds the same night for hungry kids.</p><p>Ithaca is one of the smallest cities to hold one of these events. Generally, only bigger cities have enough culinary talent to make them feasible. Here in Ithaca, we fease: here we come, with spatulas flailing. There is a persistent canard that Ithaca has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the U.S. Maybe, maybe not, but we have a lot, and that means a lot of talent, and the best of the best are at this event, representing. Don't forget, of course, about the wineries, that incredible, rare resource we are blessed with, and have cultivated so well, better and better all the time.</p><p>Here's another selling point. You can come as you want and will, but a lot of people take this event as an excuse to dress up. At least a little. This is a fairly rare thing in Ithaca. So it is a night of a certain panache, not to mention sexiness, if we may be so bold. It is a lot of fun. Like a wedding or so, you know, that level of good food, good drink, good-looking, smiling people.</p><p>Of course, let's remember the raison d'etre: to fund programs for hungry children. What's not to love about that. The work of scores of volunteers, and the largesse of the business co-sponsors for the event (SYSCO Foods; and, entirely locally, the wonderful Strebel Planning Group, financial caretakers and advisors for businesses and individuals) means that 100% of your $100 ticket price goes directly to these programs.</p><p>It's a great night. Treat yourself while helping children. $100 is a high tariff, in Ithaca, but remember, it's about a quarter a day between this event and the one next year. Not a lot to ask. Especially as much as it helps. And, tell you what, special for readers of Ithaca Blog: order tickets online, using Ambassador Code DOWD (for our friend, ticket-seller Jyl Dowd), and get 20% off your ticket price. <i></p>www.ithacatasteofthenation.org for details</p> </i>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-22452838549426862512014-05-26T00:47:00.000-04:002014-05-26T09:37:13.141-04:00Ithaca Festival This Weekend: How To Forestall Rain<p>With the tumult of graduations gone, it's time for Ithaca to celebrate itself, with the downtown festival, which occurs every year the first weekend past Memorial Day.</p><p>The festival gets bigger and better each year. This year there is an emphasis on poetry and film, along with all the music events.</p>Our favorite festival feature is the parade which kicks it off on Thursday. It's not that kind of parade, is a safe thing to say. It is very inclusive of all the community and you might say it is zany. It is certainly fun.</p><p>The parade starts Thursday at 6:30. This means the annual thunderstorm will start about 7:15. The only chance for no monsoon, we have found, is to bring an umbrella. Do that, if you are superstitious (or even just stitious); and if you are civic-minded as you should be, buy a festival button, "your ticket" to the doings, as they say.</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-2167731930792192572014-05-20T02:06:00.000-04:002014-05-25T00:57:33.875-04:00Top Ten Reasons You Should Be Eating Paul Newman Brand Pretzels Right Now <p>(1.) Pretzels are delicious. You like pretzels, don't you? Did you ever know anyone who doesn't? No. A uniting factor of humanity is everyone likes pretzels.</p><p>(2.) Pretzels go excellent with beer, and if you are not allergic to alcohol, beer is nice as pretzels, and even nicer with them. We are writing this about 90 minutes after our late-night work shift, enjoying both (with some Havarti cheese, also nice).</p><p>(3.) The words "pretzel" and "beer" are each euphonious, and redolent of cheer. Life is hard, and both these qualities should be taken gleefully as they occur.</p><p>(4.) Paul Newman brand pretzels are the finest on earf. They taste perfect. They are crunchy as get-out. We personally think "crunchy" should be, by the USDA, an endorsed food group.</p><p>(5.) Paul Newman brand pretzels are organic.</p><p>(6.) Paul Newman brand products donate their profits to charity. Paul Newman once said his food line has made much more money than his movies, which surprised us. It must be a lot of money.</p><p>(7.) The bag itself has the color(s) of pretzels, a nice touch. And has interesting, funny reading, which reminds us of cereal boxes from childhood. Nothing wrong with good packaging. An old boss of ours in retail once said, "Nothing happens until someone sells something."</p><p> (8.) Paul Newman brand products are available at GreenStar, so your money goes both to charity, and to your own community. GreenStar circulates much more of its income locally than anyone else. It is one of the 30 top employers in Tompkins County, and supports scores (hundreds?) of local entrepreneurs.</p><p> (9.) Paul Newman pretzels are on sale at GreenStar right now. So is this Peak Organic Fresh Cut beer I am enjoying with them. If you are intolerant of alcohol, also on sale at GreenStar are Santa Cruz organic lemonades, $1.66/quart, which I love to take with pretzels in the daytime.</p><p> (10.) Also on earf, if there was ever anyone cooler than Paul Newman, can you name them? I will tell you a personal story of Paul Newman's coolness, an encounter in Sag Harbor, New York, next time. Right now, it's one more crunch, and swallow, then bed.</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-2073324644135806362014-05-19T11:19:00.001-04:002014-05-19T11:19:10.658-04:00Keep Biking<p>National Bike To Work Day just passed, but the day is meant to be a reminder of the benefits of biking, and encouragement to do it more.</p><p>Biking is healthy for the environment, of course, and physically, but also mentally, we think.</p><p>Biking makes you part of your natural environment, while driving makes you part of an artificial and dangerous one. Cars are tons of metal, noise, and fumes and, while convenient, kill people. No wonder we are hostile while driving. That moron is trying to kill me. What's the matter with this douchebag? I'll show him. These are the kind of thoughts provoked by driving. Meanwhile, you will never see a biking commuter cut another one off, or deny someone a lane change.</p><p>If you don't have a bike, try craigslist. If your old bike needs a tune-up, try the Cyclery on W. State Street. $75 or so will set you up for pleasant paths.</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-69537643804878292752014-05-16T00:00:00.000-04:002014-05-16T00:39:37.027-04:00Yay For Michael Hurley At The Dock<p>Michael Hurley has been writing and performing sweetly odd, lyrically delightful, tunefully simple songs, and quietly making a legacy of it, for about 50 years or so. Way back when with the crazy likes of the Holy Modal Rounders and the Fugs, true originals and joyful, artistic anarchists. Michael played at the Dock - the old Castaways - in Ithaca tonight.</p><p>He is originally from the east - Bucks County, Pennsylvania - and made his mark first in NYC in the fecund folk days of the 1960's. Later he became more rural - played a lot of dates in Vermont, for one. About 15 years ago he went west, to the Portland, Oregon area, and apparently is very happy there.</p><p>He sure toiled in obscurity for years, though seemed not to mind it, but lately has had a surge of fervid popularity among people half his age. I'm not sure, but I think it had to do with a tune or two of his being featured on cable TV and in the movies. Discovered, around age 70.</p><p>The crowd at the Dock tonight was a nice mix of fans old and new. The Dock was a nice environment. The place looks great, repainted and reappointed. The staff were professional and gracious.</p><p>The onliest negative was with about 10% of the crowd, primarily interested , it seemed, in drinking and loud talking, rather than the doings.</p><p>This seems to us a poor, too-common thing in Ithaca. Or is it common everywhere?</p><p>WRFI, our community radio station, was on the scene, broadcasting it live, I believe. I hope they archived it, too. I will listen and hear, I hope, some of what I missed to bibulous loquaciousness around me at the site.</p><p>Anyway, thank you to the Dock, to Angry Mom Records (a sponsor), and to Michael Hurley, a beautiful guy. And to the other 90% of a good-sized crowd!</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-11398716482104779042014-05-11T12:46:00.002-04:002014-05-12T11:55:01.431-04:00Our Other Mother<p><i>(For Mother's Day, here is an excerpt from our book, "Brooklyn 3, New York</i>.")</p><p></p>There was no such thing as divorce in Brooklyn 3. No kid ever lost a parent, nor got an extra one, that way.<br /><br />Some kids got an extra parent through family, if a real parent got sick.<br /><br />This happened with us. <br /><br />Early in her marriage, our mother was hospitalized with polio. She had little kids. So her mother, Maryann Keane, stepped in.<br /><br />Maryann lived a mile from us, with her husband, Patrick, in a fifth-floor walk-up, on the corner of Church and Brooklyn Avenues. <br /><br />Maryann Lynch and Patrick Keane were from Ireland. Both came to America as children, fleeing poverty. <br /><br />Maryann came alone, at age 16.<br /><br />She'd had the misfortune to be born a girl, first child in a dirt-farming family.<br /><br />"That's one for America," her father said when she was born, not male. He shipped her to New York as soon as it was legal.<br /><br />There were boarding houses for such as Maryann. She went to work scrubbing floors in Manhattan. <br /><br />On weekends, she went to dances for the Irish. She met a man - from Tuam, back home. He was good. <br /><br />They married. Maryann was 24. Things were good enough that she stopped working. <br /><br />She bore three children. She was thrilled with it and so was her husband. <br /><br />Like herself, her husband was denied education as a child, thus choices later. Patrick worked digging ditches and pouring asphalt in the streets. <br /><br />Their three girls slept in one bed. Maryann washed clothes by hand, in a tub with a washboard and wringer. By no means was there money.<br /><br />But her husband was faithful, kind, and pious. Also, good-looking and fun. He played the accordion at parties on Saturday nights. Sunday mornings, he cooked breakfast for the family, before ushering at church. <br /><br />Their girls were all spirited, smart and beautiful. <br /><br />How much did she love Brooklyn? She loved the place entirely, she told me many times, in a brogue she never lost - jute-strong, song-sweet.<br /><br />She'd built a life, against all odds, more solid, by a million, than the stone house she was cast from in Longford.<br /><br />Presumably, to help a sick daughter raise children was no great burden, in her mind. <br /><br />Maryann came to our house by bus each morning before our father left for work, and took the bus home once he returned. No need to bother him with driving, tired as he was. Some nights she stayed, if needed. On weekends she drove with her husband. <br /><br />We children were small, and of course had all bonded normally with our mother, but there arose some confusion about the role of these two women in our lives.<br /><br />Other kids saw their mothers a lot, and their grandmothers a little. With us, it was the opposite. <br /><br />We referred to our grandmother as "Ma." Of course, our mother was Mom. But whatever a grandmother was, or was supposed to be, ours was more. Hence the splitting of the title.<br /><br />I don't know if anyone tried to clarify the issue for us, or correct us. If they did, it didn't stick. We never referred to nor addressed Maryann as anything but Ma, our whole lives.Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-1907593344593884022014-05-11T12:20:00.003-04:002014-05-12T11:56:10.824-04:00Isn't It Great?<p><i>(For Mother's Day, here is an excerpt from our book, "Brooklyn 3, New York</i>.")</p><p></p><p></p>One thing we were all good at, in Brooklyn 3, was talking. <br /><br />It didn't cost anything and there were lots of opportunities, as there were lots of people, and not much else to do. It did not take much expertise or brain power, although more than television, its biggest rival for free entertainment, so it was considered a skill; if you were really good at it, you were a community asset.<br /><br />It was part survival technique. In a place crowded with people of different experiences, it helped define both commonalities and boundaries. That was good diplomacy. If, on the other hand, you were not that diplomatic, talking loud and fast meant you didn't have to listen to other guy, to bother figuring him out. Instead you could tire him out and he would go away.<br /><br />Brooklyn had a reputation for craziness, but a lot of it was this kind of an act, where if you acted slightly crazy no one expected too much of you; if you were loud or rough, people left you alone.<br /><br />Still, there were many who genuinely enjoyed it as a pastime. My mother and Mrs. Dolan next door would talk for hours over the fence on nice days. I don't know what they leaned on, as it was a cyclone fence with barbs at the top. They could spend time out there, though; I remember Mr. Dolan making an issue of how many cigarette butts he would see out there sometimes. <br /><br />Two of my father's brothers, Robbie and Jimmy, had mobile jobs - for the police and Con Ed, respectively. Every once in a while they would be in the neighborhood and drop in for coffee, cake and conversation on the clock.<br /><br />One time Jimmy visited and we were without milk for coffee so my mother sent me to the store. <br /><br />I didn't get to do errands like this very much, a trip to the supermarket by myself, with paper money and all, so I was glad to help out.<br /><br />I liked the Met Food store. It was run by Jewish men who wore fedoras all the time, and Jewish women who wore scarves on their heads. They all spoke in heavy accents, but the main thing was they were very friendly all the time, and always nice to a good boy, helping his Mama, and so smart to count change, like a magna cum laude, and look at the eyelashes on him, he'll make all the girls swoon some day. I liked listening to how they spoke, and what they said. Different from us.<br /><br />I don't remember what happened this particular trip this day, but I came home with the milk and recounted to my mother and Uncle Jimmy whatever excitement or incongruity I had found. I remember my mother's smile and wide-open eyes, gifts she always gave you when talking.<br /><br />Jimmy was a little less enthralled, with the gift he personally generally gave, which was kind of a smirk with arched eyebrow, but I didn't take it personally, nor let it slow me down. <br /><br />I told the amazing tale and took my leave, like a good kid respectful of adults. From the kitchen, after some quiet, I heard them talking.<br /><br />"What is it with that kid?," Jimmy said. "You send him out to the store and he's gone five minutes. When he comes back, he's got a ten-minute story."<br /><br />"Yeah," said my mother. She let it sink in. "Isn't it great?"Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-83352376990107498952014-05-11T12:15:00.003-04:002014-05-12T11:59:13.904-04:00Wisdom From Above<p>(<i>For Mother's Day, here is an excerpt from our book, "Brooklyn 3, New York.</i>")</p><p></p>Kenny Davis As Perry Mason was pretty convincing in making the case of neither of us as team captain, and of course he was right - all down the line, too, as Tommy Konwinski was, indeed, named captain by our coach. <br /><br />So, Kenny was world-wise, at age 7 (or 8?). And I was world-weary, with this dispiriting development. <br /><br />The words I couldn't quite find with Kenny, or anyone else, about the situation, I found with my mother. I had briefed her earlier. Now I was coming home with the dread conclusion.<br /><br />"He's captain. Tommy Konwinski, big guy, conceited jerk. What good does that do anybody? <br /><br />"He's the strongest player. But he doesn't lead anybody. He doesn't talk to half the kids. They're not good enough. He only talks to other kids who don't need any help and don't like anybody, like him."<br /><br />That was the gist of it, although the un-gist was (rest assured) protracted. <br /><br />At one point, my mother got up from the dining room table. "I'm still listening," she said, as she went into the kitchen. <br /><br />She came back with a plate with four Oreos and a glass of milk for me. Uh-oh. That meant this was serious in her mind, for me. I had a raw vice for Oreos, which I tried to fight, so this was like opening a bottle for a bad drinker, This One Time.<br /><br />I was done talking. Now was my mother's turn. <br /><br />"This all reminds me of something," she said. "Some things," she decided. "That I've been thinking about since you first discussed this with me.<br /><br />"Do you remember," she asked, "when they had you reading the Bible by yourself in school? Because you were too far ahead for Reading class?"<br /><br />"Uh-huh," I said. That was in first grade. <br /><br />"And how some of the stories disturbed you? In some it was the language. In some it was the thought."<br /><br />"Mm-hmm," I said. I knew not where she was heading. <br /><br />"One was the story of the lepers and the tax collectors. And how Jesus welcomed them and stayed with them, even though they were shunned by society. And you said," and she was laughing - editing herself - "well, you said you couldn't live up to that example.<br /><br />"I told you not to worry, that Jesus only expects - well, I told you not to worry and we would talk about it someday when I thought it would be easier for you to understand. Today is that day.<br /><br />"Jesus wants us to take care of each other, and think of others before yourself - or along with yourself, at least. He uses the example of lepers just to shock us into thinking. We can't do what he did. But we can follow his example. <br /><br />"On your team, you don't try to aggrandize yourself by staying with the better players. You spend time with the boys who are not so good, and try to help them get better."<br /><br />"I spend the most time with my friend Kenny Davis. He's my best friend and he's one of the best players."<br /><br />"But you are friends. You don't hang around with him because he's good? He's talented but he also helps the other boys - you told me. He's modest. Like you. I bet you would like him if he was modest but not good, and you wouldn't like him if he was good but not modest."<br /><br />I turned an Oreo on the plate.<br /><br />"You always knew all this, in your heart, and I knew you knew. But it wasn't until you had enough experience in life, that I could talk to you about it clearly. <br /><br />"My next thought, the story that really disturbed you - that was 'disgusting' - was Jesus saying if your hand leads you to trouble, cut it off, or if your eye, pluck it out. Remember?"<br /><br />I did, like a story from a horror comic.<br /><br />"Well," my mother said, "again, Jesus was making a point. Dramatically. And again the point was to people like Tommy Konwinski.<br /><br />"It's a message with a lot of levels. But one simple level is to boys like Tommy. That if God gives you a gift - like a good hand, or eye, or you're good at sports - and you don't use your gifts generously, then it's better that you never had them. Because God expects things of us based on our blessings."<br /><br />"To whom much is given, much is expected," I said.<br /><br />"Exactly. So I don't want you to worry about the injustice of Tommy being named captain. That isn't as important as the work you do.<br /><br />"And that's my final point. The story - this is not one that bothered you - that Jesus tells of the Pharisees who pray out on the street, or loudly in the temple, so everyone will hear, and think good of them.<br /><br />"Jesus said, those men already have their reward. <br /><br />"He told us to pray in private. And then we would get our reward, the important one we're praying for, not the cheap one in men's eyes."<br /><br />I nodded - solemnly, perhaps, but vigorously enough, I hoped. <br /><br />"You see, don't you?," my mother asked.<br /><br />"I do," I said. <br /><br />"Good," she said, smiling. "Now, I've talked a lot. Do you want to talk more? Or ask anything?" <br /><br />I thought. "No," I said simply.<br /><br />"You get it, right?"<br /><br />"Right," I said, and I knew she knew I meant it. "I'm just going to go upstairs a while."<br /><br />"You haven't eaten those Oreos," she said.<br /><br />"It's alright?," I said. I didn't want to seem ungrateful. "I'll have them tonight."<br /><br />"Okay," my mother said.<br /><br />I went upstairs to the bedroom I shared with my two brothers. <br /><br />The sun streamed in and our bedsheets were bright. Eddie's was orange, Paddy's was yellow, mine was NFL, with logos. I guess the different sheets helped us stay personally distinct, in a small space.<br /><br />I looked out the window at our yard and the alley and the street. I turned around and knelt down at my bed. I put my forehead to the bed, on my folded arms, and said Thank You. I didn't want anything but to say that.Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30940472.post-17495362298789450832014-05-08T23:20:00.000-04:002014-05-11T12:06:20.302-04:00The Developing Ithaca Times Website <p>The website for the Ithaca Times is already a good spot to read the weekly when you left your print copy at work. Lately it is also developing into a local news source to rival the Ithaca Journal.</p>Today on WRFI radio we heard the news of the mobile meth lab discovered in a parked car downtown. It interested us particularly because the car was on our street. RFI credited the Ithaca Times with the story. We went to the website to read the article. That's where we also found out that Mayer's Smoke Shop (and newsstand) is closing, after more than a century. Bill Chaisson wrote the piece.</p><p>The website also has features not in the print version. Our column, for one (click Art & Entertainment, click Opinion, click Blogs, click Ithaca Blog).</p><p>There is a certain amount of navigation to do, admittedly. But not to get to the site. Somehow the paper got registration rights for "www.ithaca.com," a pretty nice domain name. Someone at the paper was thinking ahead.</p>Stephen Burkehttps://plus.google.com/114657424243409657436noreply@blogger.com0